Church Heritage Record 601519

3-bay aisleless nave, west tower, 2-bay chancel, south porch and north-east vestry and boiler house.

Nave and chancel 13m (40 feet) x 6m (18.5 feet).

The church was rebuilt in 1861-4 by J Norton, who was very prolific in the area (at nearby West Quantoxhead he built the church, school and mansion).  Many of the churches in the area were restored about this time, and as with many of these this was a quite radical restoration of this ancient church, which probably existed by the end of the 11th century, when the tithes were granted to Bath Abbey.  The church was dedicated to St Nicholas in 1533.

The tower, font and chancel arch are the most obvious survivals from the medieval church, though the church in plan and dimensions looks 14th-century.  The chancel lancets are Norton’s, but the nave and tower fenestration is of the 14th and late 15th or early 16th century.  The building is virtually unchanged since the restoration, indeed it has preserved its Victorian interior and atmosphere, including wall texts and lighting (no electricity).  The only major additions are a corrugated iron shed in the north angle of tower and nave and an unsightly boiler house coming off the vestry.  The heating system is now defunct.  A vertical repair scar in the nave north wall may indicate the removal of a flue or similar here.

The tower is of coursed squared and dressed local rose-coloured Doulting limestone, the rest of the church randomly coursed rubble with a bright pink mortar.  Ham stone dressings.  Tiled oak roofs, stone coping.

The church is a compact and simple building, well-proportioned and pleasing to the eye.  Almost every period of the history of the church is represented in the architectural detailing.  It would seem likely that Norton attempted an “archaeological” reconstruction of the church, and the initial impression gained from the view from the east of a totally Victorian church (Pevsner dismisses it with the words “1862 by J Norton incorporating Perp bits”) is reassessed as one progresses around it.

The west tower is the dominating feature, of three stages of which the lower two would appear to be substantially late medieval, topped with a Victorian crenellated parapet and brass weathercock rising from a short pyramidical roof.  Dragon water-spouts at the corners, rather fine. The belfry stage has two-light Perpendicular openings with pierced stone screens in the main lights, a common motif in Somerset.

There is a two-light Perpendicular window with cusping in the lower stage of the west wall, and a slit light above in each face.  Slim diagonal buttresses of four weatherings climb to halfway up the belfry stage.  At the south-east corner a stair turret with the appearance of a thick buttress of one steep weathering rises to string-course level (the listing description erroneously makes two separate features out of this).  It is of two stages, each with a slit light, and in its west wall a pointed doorway which does not look as if it was restored.  The tower has a chamfered plinth.

The nave and chancel would appear to have been substantially rebuilt in 1862, but there are features which indicate that the details were retained, even if most of the stonework and tracery were renewed.  The north wall of the nave has three windows separated by buttresses of two weatherings, the western two of two-lights with a quatrefoil in the head, 14th-century in style and with simple hood-moulds.  The easternmost is a tall round-headed window with continuous mouldings set rather low in the wall, the only such example in the church.  It is rather odd in terms of its dimensions and detail, possibly a Victorian replacement for an early Norman window, or more likely an early 18th-century window contemporary with the porch (see below). 

The south wall opposite has a Perpendicular two-light with divided upper lights (the middle bay is taken up by the porch), the western bay has a three-light window with panel tracery squashed next to the porch, both with hood-moulds.  These irregularities in the nave fenestration would seem to indicate that this has been taken over from the medieval church.  The porch is small, gabled, the outer doorway very wide with a rounded head and continuous mouldings (early 18th-century?) and a plain hood-mould, the inner similar but plain with no chamfer.  There is a sundial mounted over the outer doorway, much eroded, inscribed “ROBART GOVATT CW 1707”. 

The chancel fenestration was clearly replaced in 1862, and consists of pointed lancets. The east window is a stepped triple lancet with a continuous hood-mould.   The south wall has a paired lancet window to the west of the priest’s doorway, this pointed with a continuous chamfer.  East of this is a single lancet. Single lancets in the north wall flank the handsome vestry, which has a steep gable surmounted by a tall chimney.  The north wall has a two-light window with shouldered heads, the view of these partly blocked by an ugly brick boiler house added in front.

The porch has stone benches, on which are the broken remains of a roof finial (these are now all missing from all the gables).  The first thing that strikes one is the gloom, as there is no artificial lighting in the church.  The walls are whitewashed (flaking away in places) which offsets this somewhat, and picked out in black and red Gothic lettering are the following Victorian texts: 

Over the internal doorway, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God”, on the other side (seen as you leave) “Go and sin no more”.  Over the tower arch, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord”.  Over the chancel window (somewhat faded),“I am the Bread of Life”.  Over the chancel arch, “Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy and I will give you rest”.  Over the vestry doorway, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness”.  There is a painted dado in red with fleur-de-lys.

A plain wooden screen with a carved cornice has been inserted across the tower arch to the height of the springing, enclosing a small room now used for storage in the tower space behind.  The arch itself is probably 14th-century, like the chancel arch tall and worked with a hollow chamfer.  The nave is fully pewed, the furniture all of c 1862 and of oak.  The floors throughout are of quarry tiles set in geometric patterns.  The barrel nave roof with collar and king-posts would appear to be in style and at least partly in substance late medieval, including carved bosses and a brattished wall-plate.  The lighting is still provided by the iron and brass Victorian lamps.

The chancel is Victorian in style and substance once one is beyond the 14th-century chancel arch itself, which is steeply pointed and worked with a hollow chamfer, slightly disjointed near the apex.  There is a Victorian oak chancel screen in late Perpendicular style, with three bays of open arcading each side of a wide central entrance with depressed arched head.  One step leads up to the chancel and two more to the sanctuary.  A corona lucis with candles provides lighting. The roof is a simple barrel construction, c 1862.